Ms Virtual Pc

Microsoft Virtual PC is a 2003 MicroSoft acquisition. It has high compatibility with various late model MS Operating Systems, including addons required for MicrosoftDotNet. This is an example implementation of a VirtualComputer.

Formerly by Connectix, VirtualPC was and is the most popular x86 emulation environment for PowerPC-based Macs. In more recent years it's expanded into the x86-on-x86 virtualization market with a Windows host version, where it competes with VmWare.

More information found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/virtualpc/

and http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=virtualpc

News and developments

May05 WindowsLonghorn will get make MsVirtualPc obsolete before end of the first decade. See http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,102332,00.html?from=story%5Fkc

QuickQuestions

"Lowest Base OS required"

MS said in its FAQ, amongst other things, that this product "...allowing users to run a Windows operating system and Windows applications on a Mac."

I assume it require some OS to start this MsVirtualPc environment, and that AppleMacintosh can be one of these. However I want to have WindowsNinetyEight as hosting PC, then run MsVirtualPc (2004 version), and within it call up WindowsXp (or even WindowsVista, windowsOrcas) as and when it is required. Is that possible? If possible, how would some device support be enabled (e.g. USB2) in the guest OS, if not supported by host OS (e.g. W98)?

A ...

"...including addons required for MicrosoftDotNet"

What addons are there, are you referring to the DotNet framework being embedded into MsVirtualPc? If so, it will be less attractive to people not wanting to use DotNet yet. You are not forced to use DotNet with Virtual PC.

A product such as MsVirtualPc allow multiple installation of the same, or different operating system on a single set of hardware. This can make the life of software configuration and testing easier. An example being comparing the behaviour of .NET 1.0 with .NET 1.1 applications.

An example being comparing the behaviour of .NET 1.0 with .NET 1.1 applications.

Not necessarily a good example, though, since both .Net versions can be installed and run side by side :)

When running side by side, you are basically running a single .NET 1.1 environment, this can exhibit a different behaviour from running 1.0 application in a .NET 1.0 environment.

see http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Microsoft-Virtual-PC.html for article describing use of VPC for software testing

Anyone using the Microsoft branded MsVirtualPc yet? What are the experiences that can be shared?

At my company they wanted to use VPC to host DotNet stuff, found it too slow and now considering VmWare

I'm using it to run QNX 4 (see QnxOperatingSystem) on my Windows XP box. I had a separate QNX machine that I used for building embedded software, but now I can do it all on one machine. It is faster than the dedicated box used to be, but that box was a 300 MHz Pentium II. Installation of QNX was a breeze. One tip: if you only need network connectivity between a virtual machine and the host machine (that is, you don't need the virtual machine to connect to other machines), use the loopback adapter as described in the documentation; it is much faster than using the real NIC. --KrisJohnson

I do all of my DotNet development using MsVirtualPc and MsVirtualServer?. Recommendations: Lots of RAM and run them on a separate hard disk from your host OS. --PeterProvost

CategoryVirtualComputer

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